Los Angeles’s most famous theater – Grauman’s Chinese – was named after its owner, Sid Grauman, who was a master of promotion. In this 1930 photo, we see him standing front of something that the sign to his right calls a Cycloplane Trainer. (According to Wikipedia, a Cycloplane was a type of glider.) The thing is so wide that it must have been quite job placing it on display in the forecourt. I don’t know why it was there – maybe a Cycloplane featured in an upcoming movie about to play at the theater? Or maybe there’s a clue in that sign to the right—the one that reads “Plan to attend the ultra modern Midnight Matinee.”
From the Daily News, August 12, 1930:
Look up, there’s another plane hanging over their heads. Flying circus in town?
This is great. As it has been told, Mr. Grauman did display promotions there at the Chinese Theater frequently, but this is the first photo of this sort of thing that I have ever seen. Famously, in 1933, the large, interiorly opperated full sized *KING KONG* production head was displayed there (seen here with Chief Technician/VFX Supervisor/Chief Stop-Motion Animator Willis O’Brien on the day it was being moved from the Studio to the Theater : https://onset.shotonwhat.com/gallery/the-giant-king-kong/?tag=1544) when the movie played there in Hollywood.
There are several views of the full sized Kong head photographed in and outside of the soundstages at RKO and a promotional shot with patrons when it was moved for awhile to the Fox Theater in Pasadena. However, there has never been a shot seen of it in place at the Chinese Theater. For such a big, “showey” event (reportedly accompanied by Jungle foliage and live flamingos), you would think that something by the LA news cameramen of the day, or Grauman’s people, or just an unearthed photo by an attendee would have made it to a location on the internet by now. As far as I and experts at the Classic Horror Film Board have seen, no photos of it there at that Hollywood Theater have ever surfaced.
A recreation of the big prop was built by SPFX luminaries and displayed there (and photographed with Fay Wray and others) at the 50th anniversary screening of the film in 1983, but no vintage 1933 stills have come to light. You have found so many other great rare vintage LA county photographs Martin. Do you think it is possible that you could unearth one of from the Chinese Theater *KING KONG* premiere?
I don’t have any of King Kong at Grauman’s Chinese, but I do have this:
https://martinturnbull.com/2017/03/20/life-size-king-kong-model-probably-rko-circa-1932-or-1933-2/
As Scott mentions, in May of 1983 there was a 50th Anniversary Screening of King Kong at the Chinese. The “Kong” outside in the forecourt he references was there and tourists could have their picture taken so it looked like Kong was holding you in his hand. I got one of those! The photo came in a small cardboard folder that said, “Love, Kong.”
On the night of the screening there was a red carpet from the Chinese Theatre and then across the street to the Roosevelt Hotel. When the screening was over the attendees filed out and walked the red carpet over to the hotel! That’s when I got to see Fay Wray in person!
Before posting this I did a little search and found that there’s a youtube video of that 1983 event with some scenes before and after. There’s an interview with Fay Wray and also you get to see her posing in Kong’s hand in that replica outside in the forecourt! Great stuff!
Thanks for that link, Martin. FUN!
Martin,
Yeah, those pictures you have of the large sized Kong head are the ones I was talking about. Where Kong was on the truck, the fellow in each shot (without his hat on) is Willis O’Brien. The other guy is an unidentified chap that has been presumed to be an RKO studio official, but is NOT Merian C. Cooper (would have been cool if it was though).
Where Kong was in front of the theater, it was at the Fox in Pasadena. Notice, though, that the photo with the big crowd has been faked… and not well either, as you can see the cut-n-paste job lines that adds the crowd to the shot pretty easily. That being said, it might just have been a Pasadena newspaper Art department product, to picture an actual crowd turnout that they neglected to get a “snap” of on the day. Reports say that there were crowds like that in the first week of release all over the country, lining up to see the film.
What I can’t comprehend is why there are no stills of the setup at the Chinese Theatre in downtown Hollywood! It was a very big deal at the time and there was more room in the forecourt there for a grander presentation than there was in Pasadena. Yet, the photos from the Fox are all that we have to suggest that this sort of display even actually happened… other than the word of Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury and Forest J Ackerman, who all attended as very young men.